tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-307394322018-03-06T00:12:02.870-05:00a blade of grass… he told me that perfection could be learned from nature. be more humble than a blade of grass; more tolerant than a tree. give respect to others freely, without expectation or motive. in such a state of mind, stripped bare of your false pretenses, call out to your Lord eternally. i’m still working on it …Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-16788271934965834742009-06-11T15:05:00.001-04:002009-06-11T15:08:41.002-04:00PHOTOS: Radha-Murlidhar Reunion FestivalRadha Murlidhar Reunion FestivalVineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-86960999241587554072008-04-01T22:44:00.003-04:002008-04-01T23:09:26.801-04:00VJOTW ClassicsHaribol and Happy April Fool's Day!The other day, a dear friend and godbrother (who also happens to be an executive at one of the largest corporations in the world -- I'm not one to drop names, but "don't leave home without it" if you catch my meaning) called me (from work!) just to tell me that he misses reading my "Vaisnava Joke of the Week" -- a bit of Hare Krishna humor I used to send out to Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-75555172564830547042008-03-28T16:54:00.004-04:002008-03-28T18:00:26.405-04:00What does this have to do with Krishna consciousness?Two days ago, on a sudden inspiration, I started re-reading one of my favorite books, Memories by Satsvarupa das Goswami. Its amazing... an honest, bittersweet, struggling, comforting, challenging, collection of insights into a sadhaka's world, seen through the lens of his remembrances.In a chapter where Sdg remembers listening to Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", he ponders the criticism that may Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-46729485259076664572008-03-27T18:06:00.005-04:002008-03-27T18:20:16.937-04:00Thursdays are for Bhakti ClubToday is Thursday, which means that for most of the day my consciousness is absorbed in the Rutgers Bhakti Club, our program to share the treasure of Bhakti Yoga with students at the largest university in New Jersey. Its funny, actually, because Thursdays used to be the day that Krsangi and I offered deity seva at the temple. A few months ago, we found that it was too much and that we needed someVineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-90268509090485199692008-03-26T15:01:00.004-04:002008-03-26T15:10:42.610-04:00"All monotheistic religions..."A devotee forwarded this news item about Saudi King Abdullah's call for interfaith dialogue to me, wondering if there were a place for devotees of Krishna (Vaisnavas) at such a dialogue. It doesn't seem like it. Despite the Saudi monarch's noble intentions to bring members of different faiths together, it seems that he may fallen prey to a common misconception, rooted in ignorance or Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-62196490772028953532008-03-25T14:00:00.005-04:002008-03-25T14:46:29.148-04:00like rabbits at His lotus feetThe great Vaisnava saint Parasara Bhattar* was told the story of a hunter in the forest who had caught a rabbit. The hunter was about to kill it, but it kept circling around him and it finally placed its head at the hunter's feet. The hunter's heart melted, and rather than kill it he offered it protection.When Parasara Bhattar heard this, tears began to flow from his eyes, his hairs stood on end,Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-26993961769668031642008-03-11T17:48:00.004-04:002008-03-25T13:59:18.023-04:00On Blogging: "To Blog or Not to Blog..."Madhavi said whatever happened to your New Year's resolution to get back to blogging?So here I am (again).Oh come on, stop rolling your eyes. Stranger things have happened. :-)Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-10573706798992597262007-12-21T09:37:00.000-05:002007-12-21T09:56:12.607-05:00Tonight on CNN...Haribol! I feel somewhat embarrassed to be blogging again -- not because I don't want to -- but because the thing that has brought me back to a blade of grass is some shameless self-promotion.Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from a producer at CNN. She asked me to be a guest on a live Holiday Show, hosted by Christian speaker and journalist Roland Martin, on the subject of Christmas and the Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-22211094020374401172007-11-02T09:27:00.000-04:002007-11-02T10:20:01.358-04:00iPhone, mePhone, minePhoneFor the last three and a half months, I've been using someone else's phone.My godbrother Shyama Vallabh Prabhu is a doctor by profession and is serving as the executive director of the new Vrindavana Hospice. He and his wife spent some time in the United States to undergo some training this past year, and paid us a visit. We took them around New York a bit and helped them do some last minute Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-47044648299182572472007-10-24T13:00:00.000-04:002007-10-24T13:31:42.142-04:00persecution - us and themI read this article from the Asian Age, a big ethnic newspaper in the U.K., about the Kazakhstan Campaign there. Having worked on the campaign myself, I was quite interested to see what they had to say.But what ended up catching my eye (and emotions), was the comment a reader posted. Someone named Mohsin wrote:I think this is strikingly similar to the way lots of Muslims are being treated in Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-72919395470724685412007-10-23T11:50:00.000-04:002007-10-25T10:40:23.652-04:00onslaughtI was surfing around on my friend Madhavi's blog, and hit upon her post about "evolution", a thought-provoking film made by the Dove corporation as part of their self esteem focused campaign for real beauty. I am tempted to be cynical about Dove's motives here, but the fact is that -- whether they use it to sell their own beauty products or not -- the short makes an interesting point about how Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-52095249437833635102007-10-22T11:37:00.000-04:002007-10-22T12:47:26.840-04:00Killing the Ravana WithinEkadasi today, which means that I have to confront my inherent (or conditioned?) distaste for austerity and sacrifice. My mind is rebelling; hopefully the antidote is chanting, preparing for an upcoming Holy Name retreat that I am helping to facilitate, and self-medicating with sour-cream smothered potatoes. We'll see. In other news, despite the uncharacteristically warm weather, I can Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-83087894348294400302007-10-19T15:17:00.000-04:002007-10-19T15:28:35.933-04:00VOTW: The Wonder Years BiographyIn honor of the last few posts, and my recent bold confessional about being a Wonder Years fan, I thought I'd give Kevin Arnold and friends some time as the featured Video of the Week. Hope you enjoy this documentary which aired on A&E as part of their TV'ography series.Incidentally, I'd always secretly hoped (and simultaneously feared) that they'd run an episode where the sister (Karen) became aVineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-61972487928864868682007-10-18T11:42:00.000-04:002007-10-18T20:15:47.670-04:00stirring stuff up with Vasu MurtiI stumbled across this blog post by devotee writer Vasu Murti, and am glad that I did. Although we've since lost touch, Vasu and I wrote to another for several years when I was a teenager in the mid 1990s. I'm not quite sure how we started pen-paling, but in those pre-email days, there were a few devotees I regularly corresponded with and Vasu was one of my favorites. Among other things, he Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-5727616105289613202007-10-17T10:58:00.000-04:002007-10-17T12:26:54.340-04:00gratitude, integrity, and learning to grow up I want to thank everyone who left helpful comments and words of encouragement on my last post. It really does mean a lot. Coming to grips with one's own limitations can be frightening, and it is still something that I (we) contsantly struggle with. So just knowing that others are feeling it too keeps me in perspective and helps.Some devotees suggested that I keep two blogs. I've actually Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-49662311471836724222007-10-13T00:29:00.000-04:002007-10-13T01:05:45.787-04:00where's the Krishna consciousness?Haribol. Not sure how to begin this post, or even if it really is a post or not. I've been wrestling with this for a little while, going back and forth, writing and then deleting (only to write almost the exact same thing, only to delete it all again).Here's the problem in a nutshell: I don't feel Krishna conscious right now. No, I don't mean that I'm losing my religion (cue classic REM song Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-6286007566627683242007-10-11T12:54:00.000-04:002007-10-11T13:49:38.457-04:00red hooded sweatshirtOverslept and woke up late this morning... only to greeted by a grey, drizzly, uninviting day. As if that wasn't bad enough, I woke up with a headache again. I'm not sure what's going on, but after a 5-day migraine, just when I thought I was free of them, one returns with a vengeance.(I have chronic headaches. I don't how exactly how long it has been, but I know that in recent years -- 2000 and Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-69828272591928142902007-10-10T11:18:00.000-04:002007-10-10T12:02:20.921-04:00the Problem of PainWhy do bad things happen to good people? If God is all-good, all-just, and all-powerful why does He allow suffering? How could He sit by and do nothing while terrorists and madmen take innocent lives, or while tsunamis and earthquakes leave children orphaned and helpless?This is usually called the problem of pain, or the problem of evil.Inspired by my reading of C.S. Lewis (one of my favorites),Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-20089651978679835222007-10-09T09:36:00.001-04:002007-10-09T11:34:53.627-04:00I'll be your best friendJust got through reading Joel Stein's brilliant piece "You Are Not My Friend" on friend-based websites like Facebook or My Space or Friendster. In his usual sarcastic cheeky style, Stein points out how these sites have changed the way we look at ourselves and our relationships.I've been thinking about this stuff lately because -- deep breath -- about a month ago I bit the bullet and actually Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-53941828445056932862007-09-28T10:33:00.000-04:002007-09-28T11:11:02.801-04:00back... from beyond the grave?What could possibly bring me -- perhaps the world's most inconsistent blogger, arguably the slackest slacker in all of ISKCON -- back to the blog? How about staying at a haunted hotel?Okay, allow me to back up and catch all my regular BOG readers up to speed. After Italy (which was amazing), I returned to a pile of things to do on my desk higher than the leaning tower of pisa (which, by the wayVineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-11005668848811919822007-08-09T17:59:00.000-04:002007-08-09T18:34:45.182-04:00the Italian Job10th August, 2007MidnightAdministrative Office, Villa Vrindavan (outside of Florence, Italy)Being on a spiritual path is supposed to make you more attuned to what a Higher Intelligence is trying to communicate to you. Yogis can pick up on the subtlest of messages; they can read the signs and sense the shift in cosmic winds. So, after almost 17 years of chanting Hare Krishna, one might think thatVineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-6702588956311372162007-07-31T18:38:00.001-04:002007-07-31T19:14:47.550-04:00and now a word from our sponsorsHaribol,One of the trickiest things about keeping a travel journal is traveling and keeping a journal. On the one hand, you have experiences that are just the sort of thing you should be writing about -- exciting, meaningful, and (perhaps) spiritually moving experiences. On the other hand, having those experiences doesn't always leave so much time for writing about them. Factor in the character Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-90365902689229704202007-07-28T17:30:00.000-04:002007-07-28T19:10:26.805-04:00From Italy with love7/25 - 7/26 JFK Airport to Prabhupada DeshBonjourno! I am typing this from the quiet solitude of the area I've nicknamed Tatastha at the top of the stairs in Prabhupada Desh. I call it Tatastha, because it is a foyer which is basically the dividing point between where the ladies' and mens' guestrooms are. Krsangi and I say our goodnights and Haribols here. It is also the place to catch the Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-80368869699663125802007-07-28T02:08:00.000-04:002007-07-29T18:09:30.075-04:00Don't Mess With Texas Day 4: EntourageFinal in the Texas trip series... Sorry for the delay!Don't Mess With Texas Day 4:"Entourage" (7/8/07)Every day of my trip to Texas, I was awakened by the sensation of mosquitoes feasting on my body (the same body that I am supposed to know that I am not). Sunday morning, however, the bites were even more stinging because they were accompanied by the realization that this would be my last full Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739432.post-44651808372825502862007-07-22T02:03:00.000-04:002007-07-22T23:26:45.533-04:00Don't Mess with Texas Day 3: Lucky 7s in HoustonContinuing to back-post...Don't Mess with Texas Day 3: "Lucky 7s in Houston" (7/7/07)I awoke this morning to find the vast majority of my left arm had been devoured by what must be the hungriest, ugliest mosquitoes in Dallas. I lay in bed, staring up at the whirling ceiling fan, trying to figure out if I was dreaming or awake. It was one of those "Where am I? What am I doing here? Why is my Vineethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08141859095313185700noreply@blogger.com2